Contributors
Isabelle Weiss
Isabelle Weiss’ work with mid century fine art and furniture led to her interest in contemporary design and helping Detroit designers carry on Michigan's legacy of important furniture design. She began her career working with mid-20th century art and design, first as an appraiser, later as the director of a boutique international auction house. Isabelle’s expertise is as a furniture and object design curator and founder of NEXT:SPACE, a platform for Detroit designers to develop, exhibit and sell their work.
MyThy Huynh
Working full time as an ER nurse at the largest level 1 trauma center in the county, Beaumont hospital, Royal Oak requires a major outlet. For Mythy (pronounced “mighty”) it’s cooking, baking and exploring new food cultures and cuisine. What first started as baking for pleasure for her coworkers as a way to boost morale when shifts were chaotic, became a passion for experimenting with unique flavors. These days when Mythy isn’t working, she’s making Hokkaido milk bread with Chinese-Vietnamese-American flavors as an homage to her Asian American upbringing. From food and posting what she makes on instagram as @mightyinthemitten, nurturing health at home and at work truly has come full circle for her.
Al Profit
Alan Bradley, also known as Al Profit, has written, directed, and edited numerous documentary films, including "The Frank Matthews Story" "Killing Jimmy Hoffa", "Motown Mafia", "Rollin", and "Streets of New York". His Youtube.com/alprofit channel is heavily visited hub for his work, which includes short, medium, and full length documentary and commentary content on crime, history, and politics.
Brian Allnutt
Brian Allnutt writes about nature, gardening and open space issues in Detroit. He's also the manager at Detroit Farm and Garden.
Dana Casadei
Dana Casadei is a freelance reporter from Metro Detroit, and can be found covering anything, and everything, features-based. She believes everyone has a story to tell.
Dessislava Terzieva
Dessislava Terzieva is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Detroit. Travel takes her places, while her art makes her.
Ken Coleman
Ken Coleman, a former Michigan chronicle senior editor and Michigan democratic party spokesperson, has served as press secretary for Gary Peters and Brenda Lawrence on capitol hill. He’s written and published four books on black life in Detroit and now works as a communications specialist for the American Federation of Teachers.
K'Kio Hardin
K’kio Hardin is the design director for tilt, a design and adverting studio and the creator of Detroit kid, a clothing and lifestyle brand. K’kio has 16 years of design and art direction experience. Brand work includes Audi, Chevy, Shinola and the university of Michigan. K’kio is always looking for the next challenge and to push himself creatively.
Mary Chapman
Mary Chapman is a Detroit-area journalist. A former staffer for United Press International and Bloomberg BNA, Chapman has been a prolific contributor to The New York Times for a decade. She has done work for many outlets including Time, Fortune, People, Newsweek, Daily Beast, Al Jazeera-America, Agence France-Presse, HOUR Detroit, The Chicago Tribune, MSN.com, The Detroit News and The Detroit Free Press. A published poet, she has won a Society of Professional Journalist award for outstanding reporting. She has discussed the automobile industry several times on NPR programs.
Mickey Lyons
Mickey Lyons is a Detroit historian and storyteller. Her work has appeared in local and national publications, including model d media, Detroit metro times, hour Detroit, and NBC News. She has also worked as an independent archive researcher and history lecturer. Her book Wicked Detroit: the Scoundrels, Cads and Reprobates Who Shaped the City, will be available spring 2018, and her next book, City on a Still: Detroit During Prohibition, will be published after that.
Nick Britsky
Nick Britsky is an advertising ninja by day and a cocktail blogger by night. His main focus is NickDrinks.com where he creates original "Insta" worthy cocktails and digital videos on a variety of boozy topics. He is also the beverage director for Thrillist Detroit, cocktail contributor for Hour Detroit Magazine and freelancer for hire.
Paul A. Eisenstein
Paul A. Eisenstein is a veteran automotive journalist whose work appears in a wide range of print, broadcast and electronic outlets, including NBCNews, The Detroit News, Cigar Aficionado, and his own site, TheDetroitBureau.com. He's a former president of the Automotive Press Association and a juror for the North American Car and Truck of the Year.
Ray Glandon
First copy editor of several magazines, editor of numerous book, real estate broker, and Canton, MI resident. Ray is a happy homeowner who enjoys travel and time at the cottage in Canada with his wife Helen.
Sarah Rose Sharp
Sarah is a Detroit-based writer, activist, photographer and multimedia artist. She writes about art and culture for hyper-allergic, Flash Art, Art in America, Artslant and others. She is a 2015 Kresge literary arts fellow for arts criticism and was selected as a participant in the 2015 art writing workshop facilitated by AICA/USA and the art writers grant program. She has shown work in New York, Seattle, and Detroit—including participation in the 2014 Ofrenda group show at the Detroit Institute of Arts—with a solo show at public pool in November 2016, and another at Simone Desousa gallery in January of 2017. She's primarily concerned with artist and viewer experiences of making and engaging with art, and conducts ongoing research in the state of contemporary art in redeveloping cities, including a process blog called “breakfast with the artist.”
Scott Rutterbush
Scott is the masterful mastermind behind dine drink Detroit, a consulting & events company that produces the week of the same name, celebrating one of the country's most exciting and emerging restaurant cultures. Scott has been in hospitality for over 20 years supporting start-up businesses, consulting, and producing some of the most memorable events in the city. He's also managing partner for the eastern, an event venue, and co-owner of le petit zinc, a French cafe.
Katai
Tony is a multimedia and video artist from Detroit exploring the creative state of being and the many mysteries of the unknown. When he's not saving neighbors, cleaning up the city, traveling, or working on films, he makes vegan dinners and walks Tuka, his Shar-Pei king.
Trevor Cutts
Trevor is a writer and photographer whose work has appeared in Reuters, the Washington Post, CNN and ITV. He moved to Detroit because of beautiful, wide-open avenues like Michigan, Grand River and Gratiot. He studied performance and production in North Carolina, Tokyo, Bangkok and Swaziland. Trevor prides himself on being a man of the world.
Adam Buesching
Years of a love of writing lead Adam to become among the youngest of the team and one of the first contributors to DetroitIsIt. His interests include fiction, audio and video editing, and the news. Later on, Adam plans to become a published author and host his own writing-prompt app someday soon.
CV Henriette
People. Places. Things. Mostly people. Director of Content for Detroitisit.
Charlie Vogelheim
Charlie Vogelheim has over 30 years of automotive industry experience, including roles as VP at J.D. Power and Executive Editor at both Kelley Blue Book and Motor Trend Auto Group. He is the principal of Vogelheim Ventures. through which he is involved in a variety of initiatives including “The Flying Car” radio show and podcast bearing witness to the transformation of transportation. Charlie is often a featured speaker at automotive seminars, educational meetings, and media presentations. Add to the list: Gonzaga University graduate, commercial pilot, and former Alaskan bush pilot.
Chris Stefani
Christopher Stefani began his work in Detroit as an educator at DPSCD's Denby High School in 2015 where he co-authored the LTU (+) Program, a STEAM based architectural curriculum used in K-12 educational institutions. In 2016, Stefani established his own practice, The C.L. Stefani Company, in Detroit. This multidisciplinary design-think group creates and curates teams to collaborate on a variety of projects - all set to move the city forward. The company's most recent work includes FOLK in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood. Stefani is the acting associate director at Lawrence Technological University's Detroit Center for Design + Technology in Midtown.
Greg Tasker
Greg Tasker is a Michigan-based freelance writer. He was formerly Managing Editor of Cadillac Magazine and editor in various positions at The Detroit News. His work has been published in Budget Travel, Parade, AAA Living, Art & Antiques, Executive Traveler and a host of newspapers across the country.
Leah Vernon
Leah V is a Detroit-based social media influencer and inclusive content creator. In 2013 during her master’s program, she started the body positive platform, Beauty and the Muse, because there wasn't enough inclusion of different bodies or cultures in the media. She began openly diving into what it meant to be a fat, Black, and Muslim girl living in America and her rawness landed her the esteemed Gilda Award and the Ariane de Rothschild Fellowship. She's been featured too many times to count, both nationally and internationally, but most importantly she really digs cats.
Marcus Amick
Marcus Amick is a journalist and documentarian with a career spanning nearly 20 years. As a writer, Marcus has penned works for a number of national publications, including Digital Trends, Men’s Journal, The Verge, Automotive News, and Playboy magazine, with a focus on topics spanning from transportation to the arts. Marcus is currently involved in a number of research projects, including one exploring community murals and graffiti, another looking at the intersection of mobility and culture, and a third centered on the history of sports and community activism. Marcus began his career in journalism as a reporter for the Michigan Chronicle, where he gained recognition for his in-depth coverage on Michigan’s juvenile justice system, Detroit’s political landscape and the auto industry.